Before Trials Fusion and Trials HD, There Was Elasto Mania…

...and before Elasto Mania, there was Action SuperCross
(Across). Trials Fusion launched a few days ago and I can’t help but hear and
read and see a number of gamers talking about playing it. And for good reason –
it’s insanely fun…albeit frustrating game. If you’ve never played it or even
heard of it, all you need to know is you’re on a motorcycle and you’re trying
to drive it through a course. And all you have to worry about is accelerating,
braking and leaning – no turning involved.

Trials Fusion is a
platform racing game created by RedLynx in collaboration with Ubisoft Shanghai
and Ubisoft Ukraine. A follow-up to the critically acclaimed Trials Evolution,
it is the fifth game in the Trials series and is the first one to be released
on a PlayStation platform.

Like previous games in
the series, Trials Fusion presents an arcade take on the real-life sport of
observed trials. The player controls a rider on a physics-based motorcycle from
the start of the level to the end while navigating a number of obstacles. The
game uses 3D graphics, but is played on a 2D plane, so the rider can only move
forwards and backwards. The player controls how the rider shifts their weight
forward and backward in order to perform wheelies and stoppies and well as
flips while in the air.

Before Trials Fusion, there was Trials HD. Same game really.
Only on the Xbox 360. I was just playing it earlier and its every bit as fun as
I remember. The graphics are solid, the game play entertaining and the fun at
an all-time high. If you ask me, the real achievement is the course design. Simply
brilliant.

As much as you and/or I might like the Trials series, the
truth is long before this game saw the light of day, there was another.

Yes, another…another motorcycle game that relied on physics
as a mechanic of gameplay. In fact, it played almost completely identical to
what we have today with the Trials series. Of course, Trials has the benefit of
current generation technology and updated graphics – which makes a monumental
difference as you can imagine. But seeing a game that is over a decade old
receive a facelift and be so successful…while retaining the game play qualities
that made it so much fun is kind of neat.

Action SuperCross

Action SuperCross is so old and/or obscure it doesn’t even
rate a Wikipedia page. I promise you it’s a game though. I’ve played it. A lot.

Action SuperCross
(later referred to as Across), programmed by Balázs Rózsa (Hungarian), was
first published in February 1997 and it was pretty soon chosen as the shareware
game of the month in a Finnish hardware and software magazine named MikroBitti.

Across is based on a
real physical model, but to be honest, the physics could as well be from
another planet. In the game, you have to complete various levels by collecting
all the apples as fast as possible and finish the level by touching the flower.
The basic idea of it is very simple and Across might sound a bit boring, but
it's definitely not once you get the hang of it. People are either big fans of
Across and Elma, or despise it for being a waste of time. Maybe it's just the
simple idea which makes the game so addictive, or the very dedicated community
that has developed in the time passed after the game was released. (SOURCE:
The Moposite)

While all of these games are fun to play – I don’t really
mention Action SuperCross in an effort to try and get people to play it instead
of Trials. Rather, I bring it up because I think it’s important to remember our
roots and where we come from, and the historical relevance of games from our
past that influence our future.